Names and faces
■ A Los Angeles judge ruled Monday that rapper A$AP Rocky would stand trial on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator on the streets near a Hollywood hotel in 2021 due to the amount of evidence available. Surveillance videos and body camera footage led Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar to say that “the totality of the video and testimony” shows there is sufficient evidence for a trial to proceed, while pointing out preliminary hearings have a much lower evidence standard than a typical trial. Terell Ephron testified that his friendship with Rocky had been gradually tuning sour, leading to the Nov. 6, 2021, standoff in Hollywood, where he said Rocky, 35, pulled a gun on him. Ephron said in a later confrontation fired shots ended up grazing his knuckles. Rocky, whose original name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport in April and charged in August. He had already pleaded innocent to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm before Monday’s decision. Prosecutors said he could get up to 24 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
■ Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler announced that he planned to sell a collection of guitars at the Christie’s auction house in London next year.
The auction house said the sale would be Jan. 31, with Knopfler putting 120 guitars and amps up that he’d used with the British band for years. Estimated prices at sale range from $375 for an electric-acoustic mandolin to $625,000 for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a cherry red sunburst finish. Knopfler, 74, said the collection had grown over 60 years thanks to his “love-affair” with guitars but it was time to hand over “some of these treasured sixstring companions.” He added that “you can be sure I’ll be sad to see them go but we’ve had wonderful times together and I can’t play them all. To you fellow players, enthusiasts and collectors, I wish you many good times with these old friends of mine.” The instruments will go on public display from Dec. 9-13 at Christie’s New York showroom then from Jan. 19-30 at the London showroom and headquarters. A quarter of the total sales from the auction will go to benefit the British Red Cross and other charities.